I love Gelish but sometimes have problems with it shrinking. It shrinks every time from the free edge after I cure it the first time. I also have trouble with the whole nail shrinking. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Can anyone offer some advice? Thanks!

(05-19-2012, 06:12 PM)mmriggs2009 Wrote: I love Gelish but sometimes have problems with it shrinking. It shrinks every time from the free edge after I cure it the first time. I also have trouble with the whole nail shrinking. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Can anyone offer some advice? Thanks!

Also...I have a new UV lamp and bulbs so I know that's not the problem.

Very frustrating problem!!
After you cure your base coat, use a clean dry gel brush and wipe off each nail which will remove any extra base, it should look dull. Make sure your color is thoroughly mixed. I will use an orangewood stick to really get in there and mix it well. Darker colors seem to shrink more for me. Also, if that doesn't help you can polish one or two nails and put in your light for 10 seconds to flash cure it, then do the next one or two nails and flash cure for 10 seconds and then do a full cure once the whole hand is done.
I hope that helps, Kelly*

I only have shrinkage when I apply the base coat too thickly. I pull out the brush and wipe it well so that most of the base coat drips back into the bottle. Then I wipe the brush over one or two nails (sometimes three) and then go back and scrub it into the nail plate. If it's a new bottle - then sometimes I have enough on the brush to base polish all five nails... even with letting some drip back down. This method allows me to not have to use the method above from Kelly's advice. I found that when I did that I ended up with too much "fuzz". HOpe this helps.